Meditation and Resilience

Meditation is increasing in popularity as a way to better manage stress and find calmness. It can be a blissful escape from our overwhelming and busy lives, or act as a place of refuge where you are granted permission to free your mind from responsibilities and burdens, even if just for a moment.

This may seem quite indulgent and viewed as a “treat”, or not prioritized because it’s not seen as productive. While calmness and relaxation is a common side effect of meditation, the practice offers so much more, including better performance, greater resilience, improved focus, and clarity of thought which all increase productivity. Just as with anything, the more consistently we meditate, the more effective it becomes.

There is a misconception that meditation is always pleasant or that it makes you overly relaxed with no desire to accomplish anything. However traditional mindfulness meditation is simply about exploring and understanding the mind by being in the present moment. This can have a calming effect because it helps to keep us from ruminating about the past or worrying about the future.

Simple does not always mean easy. The present moment is not always enjoyable. In fact, more often than not we are dissatisfied most of the time even if we experience it along side satisfaction. When I’ve been standing too long it feels good to sit, but then I sit too long and want to stand. This chocolate is delicious, now it is gone, and I want more. We may notice tightness in our neck causing us pain, or feelings of anger that we were originally too busy or distracted to identify until we sat to meditate. Our natural reaction is to wish these feelings away whether they are physical or emotional. However, with meditation the goal is not to make the feelings go away, but to merely witness them as they are.

Mindfulness gives us the capacity to sit with our discomfort. When we can sit with discomfort, we build our resilience. This is not to be confused with “powering through” where we often deny or resist our true feelings and try to force them into what we want them to be. That may work for a short period of time, but the internal struggle is often so exhausting even the most disciplined and strong-willed person cannot sustain it. Mindfulness is almost like inviting that uncomfortable feeling in for coffee and conversation to get to know it without judgment. This gives it less power and control over you, and you may find it is not as scary or threatening as it seems. From there you are able to carry on your life with a greater sense of ease.

When we are met with feelings of anger, worry, sadness, fear, anxiety, or whatever it may be, we must try to meet these feelings with compassion and curiosity instead of trying to push them away. This exploration shows us they are not as fixed as they may seem. There is a beginning, a peak, and a point where we can watch the feelings pass and fade away, change into something else, or be replaced by a whole other thought or feeling completely. Noticing how feelings change so quickly can be reassuring because it shows how temporary they are and when they start to come up again, we don’t need to worry so much.

Resilience is developed by overcoming challenge, and the greater the challenge, the greater the resilience. A mindfulness practice builds our confidence and teaches us that we don’t have to desperately look for something outside of ourselves in order to find happiness and peace. We learn that everything we need already exists within us, and the beauty is we can access it anytime, anyplace, and in any situation.

 
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